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50yrs ago: Prague Spring crushed

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  • 50yrs ago: Prague Spring crushed

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    "To prevent a NATO backed coup". But the west 'won' the Cold War right?

  • #2
    I remember as a 9 year old my Dad and I glued to the TV screen while visiting my grandfather on vacation. Instead of going to the beach that day I stayed and watched. I didn't fully understand what was happening but I knew it was not good.

    And it further solidified in my young mind that I had to go into the Army as an adult in order to prevent this from happening again.

    As for whether or not NATO won the cold war?

    Well the Wall is gone, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, all former WARSAW PACT nations or allies are now members of NATO. 5 US states each have a larger GDP than Russia.

    Yes there are still issues but I would say all things being equal, yeah, I'd call it a win.
    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
    Mark Twain

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    • #3
      Originally posted by snapper View Post
      But the west 'won' the Cold War right?
      The Czech president has chosen not to attend memorial festivities for the event or hold any speech in that regard, while Babis as the prime minister - and the Czech counterpart of Trump in every regard - who chose to do so was booed by the crowd for not being enough of a neonazi.

      Let's remember - of those five decades since '68 half the time has been since the end of the Cold War.

      Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
      Well the Wall is gone, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, all former WARSAW PACT nations or allies are now members of NATO.
      Just to point it out: Yugoslavia, Albania and Romania supported the Czechoslovak side in '68 - with Tito visiting Prague days ahead of the invasion; Enver Hoxha using the opportunity to quit the Warsaw Pact with Albania - even if it had been shut out for the previous 7 years anyway - and start turtling down covering the country in bunkers for the next quarter century; and Ceaucescu in Romania, after following Tito with a visit and signing a friendship pact with Dubcek, using the opportunity to further his neofascist "patriotic" regime .

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      • #4
        Neonazi,neofascist... Dude,you have issues.

        It's interesting and rather unclear if the invasion weakened or stregthtened USSR.On one side it clearly prevented the breaking of WP by contamination.On the other,it damaged any moral fabric of the USSR,both abroad and inside. Just having hundreds of thousands of troops going into a country whose people actually ate proper food was like having an injection with the disease of revolt.
        Short term,the Soviets lost any prospect of conducting military operations in S-E Europe because our army was mobilized to defend the country against them and so it was to be for the rest of the existence of the WP.

        Yugoslavia was never an ally of the USSR or a member of the Pact.

        It was an interesting time,to be sure.

        As a side effect,one indirect unfortunate result was the birth of the modern left in the West,since the Soviet model got discredited.
        Those who know don't speak
        He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Mihais View Post
          Neonazi,neofascist... Dude,you have issues.
          What would you call Ceaucescu, especially in 1968 when he started using the same title as Mussolini, Hitler, Franco or - for Romania - Antonescu; instituted a revisionist positive view of Antonescu; established his own fasci in the form of the Patriotic Guards like Mussolini; reduced the Party to a mere tool like his comrades-in-spirit; reducing politics to clientelism like Hitler?

          Sure, some call that "neostalinist", mostly based around combining the quite obvious copy-paste from Juche and Mao's Cultural Revolution - that he openly admired - onto a stalinist personality cult. Given the above though? I'll call it neofascist.


          Originally posted by Mihais View Post
          As a side effect,one indirect unfortunate result was the birth of the modern left in the West,since the Soviet model got discredited.
          What modern left? The modern left of that time was far more inspired by Mao (and looking at some alternatives, such as Mikhail Bakunin), something which persisted into the 1980s and was then replaced by some strange mix of all kinds mostly born out of anti-NATO protests that isn't really left but instead bourgeouis NIMBYism.

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          • #6
            Mihais

            Yugoslavia was never an ally of the USSR or a member of the Pact.

            Never said it was...but it was more leaning towards Ussr than to NATO.

            Yes Tito went his own path but trust me, we had War Plans in which we had to account for them as possibly coming in on WP side if the balloon ever went up.
            “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
            Mark Twain

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            • #7
              The duty of planners is to have a War Plan for fighting the Klingon empire.

              Our side after 68 was busy preparing on keeping the land connection to Yugoslavia,thus with the US.Which offered us at a blink of an eye 5000 AT weapons(no idea what sort,I presume LAW) about these days,50 years ago.The big red bear shirked then from a fight,for the benefit of all.
              Game of Thrones is a very poor reflection of reality :)
              Those who know don't speak
              He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Mihais View Post
                The duty of planners is to have a War Plan for fighting the Klingon empire.

                Our side after 68 was busy preparing on keeping the land connection to Yugoslavia,thus with the US.Which offered us at a blink of an eye 5000 AT weapons(no idea what sort,I presume LAW) about these days,50 years ago.The big red bear shirked then from a fight,for the benefit of all.
                Game of Thrones is a very poor reflection of reality :)
                I am not talking Game of Thrones bullshit.

                I was in the S-3 & G3 shops of 2 different brigades/divisions during the 1980s and we definitely had a plan to go from Greece & Italy northward...I know cause I helped write it.

                And we war gamed it...regularly.

                We didn't fvck around with notional crap. We were too busy planning for real.
                “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                Mark Twain

                Comment


                • #9
                  Sir,I had no doubt from the start that you were serious.But so was I.And having one formally WP country preparing to fight its notional allies with or without the help of a non WP socialist country and getting support from the supposed enemy is also not notional .

                  The tidbit about game of thrones was just a joke,because reality is stranger than fiction.
                  Those who know don't speak
                  He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Mihais View Post
                    Sir,I had no doubt from the start that you were serious.But so was I.And having one formally WP country preparing to fight its notional allies with or without the help of a non WP socialist country and getting support from the supposed enemy is also not notional .

                    The tidbit about game of thrones was just a joke,because reality is stranger than fiction.
                    Point taken....

                    But back to my original post....

                    There is no doubt that the results of the Cold War are a net Win for NATO and the Western Alliance.
                    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                    Mark Twain

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